After a week of being buried by the snow, I have had a chance to reflect on why I hate the white, fluffy stuff so much.
I've never been a big fan of snow, and the past two weeks on the Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland have done little to change my mind.
Growing up in Saskatchewan, I had my fair share of cold and snowy winters - living through storms with so much snow we couldn't get out of the house, and when we did, we had to bundle up with many layers of clothing to avoid frostbite.
Since I moved to B.C. 15 years ago, I have yet to deal with a snowstorm here that could rival one back on the prairies, but all the same, snow, any amount of it, is simply a pain in my backside.
There is the problem of shovelling, something which I did a couple times while spending time at my parents' home in Coquitlam during the Christmas break.
Since my parents had to work and my younger brother was not about to pick up a shovel, out I went into the cold air, like I had done so many times before.
Of course, I hurt my back after the rains came, creating snow that seemed to weigh about as much as my car. This is probably a sign that I'm out of shape, which I am, but I digress. Snow caused my back pain - that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Another source of frustration with snow days are the terrible drivers we have in this province.
When the snow comes, we slip, we slide, we follow too close behind other drivers, and because of this, we brake too fast and far too late.
After a snowfall like the one we just lived through, calls to ICBC went through the roof as people filed accident claim after accident claim.
The only people who are probably happy when snow falls are tow truck drivers and tire salesman.
If you think I'm wrong, driving statistics back up my claims.
Doing a little web surfing, Transport Canada's 2001 collision stats show B.C. had 839 injuries per billion motor-vehicle kilometres, following just behind Manitoba, that had the largest number of injuries in Canada at 896 per billion motor-vehicle kilometres.
These statistics are for the whole year and are taking into account more than just snow days. So even if we have days with a little liquid sunshine, we still have a bad driving record. Imagine how many more records were added due to the snow the past two weeks.
I realize there are people who love the snow. My co-worker Nancy Moote is probably one of them.
Because of the snow she could not make it into work on Tuesday and had the pleasure of spending a snow day at home with her kids, who also couldn't get to school.
All you skiers out there will likely disagree with me too, but I'm standing my ground on this one. Snow stinks. I could care less if I ever saw another snowflake again this season. Bring on the rain.
